(Columbus, OH) — National Leather Association – International (NLA-I), a leading organization for activists in the pansexual SM/leather/fetish community, announced today the semi-finalists for its annual writing awards. Named after activists and writers Geoff Mains, John Preston, Pauline Reage, Cynthia Slater, and the groundbreaking organization Samois, they are awarded annually to recognize excellence in writing and publishing about Leather, SM, bondage and fetishes.

7 With 1 Blow by Caraway Carter (Beaten Track Publishing)
Pictures and Frames by Daniel Erickson (Pride Publishing)
Cupcakes and Steel by D.L. King from the anthology For The Men and The Women Who Love Them ed. Rose Caraway (Stupid Fish Productions)
A Proven Therapeutic Fact by D.L. King from the anthology Begging For It: Erotic Fantasies For Women ed. Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press)
Spring on Scrabble Creek by Jeff Mann from the anthology Threesome: Him, Him and Me ed. Matthew Bright (Lethe Press)
Rooms Formed of Neurons and Sex by Ferrett Steinmetz which appeared in Uncanny Magazine http://uncannymagazine.com/article/room … urons-sex/

There were no submissions this year for the Samois Anthology Award.

The winners will be announced at the National Leather Association – International’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held April 23rd at Oklahoma Leatherfest April 21st – 23rd in Oklahoma City https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oklahoma-l … 7595093668. We hope our finalists will attend the AGM to receive their awards and congratulate the winners.

Nice quiet Sunday. Nothing much to speak of, really. I mailed out some promo material for the freebie tables at Heliosphere, and I had just pulled into a spot at Publix (the grocery store) to do my weekly shopping. Once I parked, I decided to check my email. And found this:

Heart’s Master has been nominated for the Golden Flogger in the LGBT category!

Okay… so maybe it IS something to speak of! Wow!!!!

Here’s hoping this is the first of several such announcements. Heart’s Master is also entered for the Pauline Reage, for the Prism…. and for the RITA.

Today I have spoken to a packed room on the ins and outs of writing sex, sat in an empty room that was supposed to be a reading/signing, gave an intimate talk on fanfiction, and been interviewed for YouTube.

I gave a copy of House of Sable Locks to Jacqueline Carey, an author who I admire greatly, and told her it was all her fault (for my career, and for the career of Moira Katson, who also started out writing on The Night Court.)

Now I’m sitting at my table, decompressing and watching the tables of two friends who are on a panel. I’m thinking about going and getting some tea, and I just said hi to Orson Scott Card and his wife as they went past my table.

Tomorrow, I have a panel on writing cross-genre, and we’ll see what else happens. But I am truly having an awesome convention!

One of these days, someone is going to pinch me, and I’m going to wake up. Because I simply cannot believe that I get to live this life. I mean, I must have been extra special good the last time around or something to deserve this! First, we have House of Sable Locks being named a modern erotic classic. And now, this just happened:

Today was the third grade field trip. 120 8-and-9-year-old kids went to Legoland, and I had charge of two eight-year-old boys all day (one mine, one borrowed). Really, we had a BLAST. The Legend of Chima ride involves waterguns, and many truth in advertising warnings that you WILL get soaked. The Dragon roller coaster wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be — roller coasters and I don’t get along, but this one was actually fun. Lots of rides, lots of walking, lots and LOTS of Legos, 120 very tired kids on the buses home. So, given this, I had very little online time until we were on the bus to come home. Looking at my email, I found that I’d been tagged on Facebook by Cecilia Tan: Hey, have you seen this?

This, for anyone who doesn’t want to click through, is Cliterati’s list of 100 Modern Erotic Classics that You’ve Never Heard of, a list curated by Rebecca Black in honor of the first ever Erotic World Book Day (March 5th).

House of Sable Locks is on that list.

I appear to have written a modern erotic classic. That’s pretty mind-blowing, especially since Sable Locks is only my second novel! And that list also includes the two people on whom I fondly blame all of my writing — Laura Antoniou and Jacqueline Carey. If I wasn’t completely wiped out, I’d be squeeing all over the place.

It’s also a little terrifying. Because now I have to do it again.

You know what? Given a choice between jubilation and terror, I’ll go for the jubilation. I’d much rather squee!